Journal of Plastic Film & Sheeting

Conducting polymer technology doped with nanodiamond particles enhances processability, tractability, electrical, mechanical, electrochemical, optical, thermal, and other essential physical properties. This review outlines some major conducting polymer/nanodiamond nanocomposites advances obtained with major conjugated polymers such as: polyaniline, polypyrrole, polythiophene, and polythiophene derivatives. Moreover, this article concisely and inclusively discusses how important conducting polymer nanocomposites are for supercapacitor, actuator, solar cell, corrosion protection, and biomedical fields. Finally, challenges and perspectives are deliberated for viable future high performance materials.

In this paper, biocomposite films were prepared by using recycled low density polyethylene from marine plastic waste and wheat straw micropowders from common agricultural wastes in northern China. In order to determine the optimal ratio, eight experimental groups were set up for comparative testing. For further improving the performance of the biocomposite film, the three-dimensional network skeleton construction and targeted repairing technology of the material were designed. The specimens were characterized by a HD camera, a universal examination machine, a research grade inverted microscope, and a thermogravimetric analyzer. The results indicate that the agglomeration of powders reduces the tensile strength of the material, and the elongation at break depends on the properties of the polyolefin matrix itself. The reinforced biocomposite film has a 13.7 MPa tensile strength and a 243% elongation at break. It has slightly better mechanical properties than ordinary materials, which can be used as an economical, thermally stable, and environmentally friendly material to manufacture new packaging and courier bags.

In this work, composite nanofiber membranes were prepared by adding modified nano-sized Al₂O₃-particles to a polyvinylidene fluoride (PVDF) solution (17 wt %) through an electrospinning process. The Al₂O₃ content affected the spun membrane performance, such as hydrophilicity, bovine serum albumin (BSA) rejection rate and anti-fouling properties were examined in detail. UF (experiment with an ultrafiltration cup) experiment was used to measure how the membrane water flux changed. This test showed that the nanoparticle affect was remarkable, the pure water flux was 4635 L•m⁻²•h⁻¹ in 2% Al₂O₃/PVDF membrane versus 3546 L•m⁻²•h⁻¹ for the membrane without nanoparticles. Contact angle was used to determine the hydrophilicity change of membranes. The results demonstrate that the modified membrane hydrophilicity was enhanced dramatically the contact angle of composite membrane with 2% Al₂O₃ was 56.34° versus 85.64° for the pristine PVDF membrane. The roughness and surface structure were measured by atomic force microscope (AFM) and electron microscopy (SEM). There were clear fibers in SEM images and the membrane surface roughness was heightened by adding nanoparticles. The rejection rate was investigated by UV spectrophotometer and the porosity was measured using a dry-wet weight method. The spun membrane rejection rate was 95.4%. Thermo gravimetric Analysis (TGA) and Fourier transform infrared spectroscopy (FT-IR) were used to study how nano-Al₂O₃ particles affected the membrane structure. More importantly, the Al₂O₃/PVDF spun membrane displayed an outstanding anti-fouling property. To sum up, this composite spun membrane shows a remarkable efficiency in the test and could be an ideal candidate for water treatment.

This study was undertaken to fundamentally understand structure–property relationship of blown films of linear low density polyethylene/low density polyethylene blends over the entire composition range via decoupling orientation effects from their intrinsic properties. Three different low density polyethylene blends with an octene Ziegler–Natta linear low density polyethylene resin were studied. The machine direction tear strengths of blown film of linear low density polyethylene/low density polyethylene blends went through a minimum as the low density polyethylene concentration increased, almost a mirror image of the melt strength curve for these blends. The machine direction tear decreased significantly up to 40% low density polyethylene, much sharper decrease compared to decrease in intrinsic tear suggesting orientation effects dominating the machine direction tear behavior. The decrease in the dart impact and puncture energy was also due to both an increase in the machine direction orientation, and a decrease in the intrinsic toughness due to decrease in the tie chain concentration, as the low density polyethylene content increased.